A Deep Play in India

A Deep Play in India

-Uday Dandavate

The two national political parties in India are projecting the next general election as a match up between two Prime Ministerial candidates. They forget that the Indian constitution does not allow for a direct contest between two prime ministerial candidates. Rather, voters of each parliamentary constituency are given the constitutional right to elect their representative who can best serve their interests. The elected members of the parliament are given the constitutional responsibility to elect a leader of the house. The Indian Constitution does not even grant Prime Ministerial status to the leader of the largest political group in the parliament. The majority of the elected representatives elect the leader.

By turning the forthcoming Parliament election into a match up between two Prime Ministerial candidates, the two major political parties are conniving to turn the election process into a cock-fight and the voters are delegated to play the role of a mere audience, who at best can put bets on a rooster of their choice.

Based on the reports in the press very soon both the Congress party and the BJP will formally announce the entry of their favorite roosters in the match up. Bookies are getting enthusiastic about the windfall that is expected. The Stakes are going to be high. The roosters have been prepared for the match up through years of cultivation. Minions

have started filling the air with rants in support of their favorite rooster. Spurs have been sharpened to inflict deep cuts into each other.

The famous anthropologist Clifford Geertz description of the preparations for the Balinese cock fight, in his article, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cock Fight, can be compared to the match-up in India,

Majority of Balinese men, spend an enormous amount of time with their favorites, grooming them, feeding them, discussing them, trying them out against one another or just gazing at them with a mixture of rapt admiration and dreamy self absorption .. The madness has some less visible dimensions. however, because although it is trues that cocks are symbolic expressions or magnifications of their owners self, the narcissistic male ego writ out in Aeopian terms, they are also expressions- and rather more immediate ones- of what the Balinese regard as the direct inversion, aesthetically, morally and metaphysically of human status: animality (Geertz).

Run up to the next election promises to be full of animality Geertz refers to. Just as in a cockfight, aggressive posturing, cursing, and violence will very likely replace civility. There are already signs of election campaign turning into a religious war. Instead of a contest between candidates we will be witnessing a contrived conflict

between two mythical characters. Instead of debating ideas for a better future, the supporters of the two parties will herald insults at each other. The supporters of the two candidates are out to draw blood from the opponent.

Should Indian voters allow themselves to be turned into a mere audience of a cockfight? Are we going to allow demeaning of the election process? Are we so vulnerable that we give up our right to elect a representative who is the best suited to serve our interests?

It is important to defeat the designs of the organizers of this match-up by focusing on our most sacrosanct responsibility the constitution of India has given to us- to not elect a prime minister-but to elect our own representative who has the best credentials to serve our constituency. Let us send people of integrity, dedicated to the service of their constituency, to the Parliament and then let them fulfill their constitutional obligation to elect a leader of the house.